Remembering Marquette and Joliet and the God who created them

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Marquette and Joliet are two of the names I remember from my public school history classes. Jacques Marquette was the Jesuit priest and Louis Joliet was the fur trader who together explored the Mississippi River for New France in 1673. The pair hoped that the Mississippi would lead them to the Pacific Ocean.

Marquette and Joliet and their crew began in Canada, which was then New France. They traveled from Lake Michigan, across Wisconsin, and then down the Mississippi. By the time they reached Arkansas, they were convinced that the river did go to the Gulf of Mexico, so they began their return trip northward up the river.

When the pair and their crew reached the place where the Illinois River empties into the Mississippi (the mouth of the river), they turned into the Illinois River and took that route north.

Ray and I left after church on Sunday for some rest and relaxation. Yesterday we were in southern Illinois, exploring in the 8,000-acre Pere Marquette State Park. Pere is French for father. The park name honors Marquette in his role as a Catholic priest.

Inside the park is a dolomite cross erected in 1929 at the mouth of the Illinois River.

Ray and I were excited to visit that cross yesterday.

What a thrill it was to climb the dolomite stairs that lead up to the monument . . .

. . . and then from there, to see the Illinois River emptying into a sharp curve of the mighty Mississippi near the base of the memorial cross.

Another magnificent feature of the park is its wonderful stone and log lodge. Members of the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) built the lodge and the nearby cabins between 1933 and 1939.  They placed its massive timbers and built the 700-ton stone fireplace in the lobby. CCC metal workers created the massive chandeliers and also door handles and window locks. Illinois prison inmates built its sturdy furniture.

Human beings created in the image of God can accomplish astounding feats: exploring unknown waters and lands, building strong and beautiful structures, and training little children to follow their Creator. Your work is so powerfully important.

Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image,
according to Our likeness;
and let them rule over the fish of the sea
and over the birds of the sky
and over the cattle and over all the earth,
and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”
God created man in His own image,
in the image of God He created him;
male and female He created them.
Genesis 1:26-27

 

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